Adsense Missing and Packet Loss

Adsense missing Packet Loss

[Jade99]

Hi, I would like your comments and help please....to know if this is actually a problem.

I dont have a problem with 'Adsense' itself as such, but I am encountering missing adsense in the following scenarios:

1..If I do a ping test, my site it is showing as 70-100% packet loss for MOST countries.
2..When I view my site via MOST countries proxies, ie Germany proxy, Canada proxy, they are ALL showing my site as having NO adsense visible/blank and missing images JPGs etc.
3..In search engine result 'screenshots' of my site it is blank where my adsense should be.....although DOES view ok from my PC and I suspect some countries as I am getting some adsense..just dont know how long this has been like it!
4. Also get some time out error messages.

I presume this is not normal? Big sites with adsense do show their ads in search results and return "OK" results from a ping.

I dont know it is a host (server settings..perhaps firewall) or if it could be something I need to do in my website files ?

My host has just enabled ICMP to try fix this but this has NOT fixed the adsense issue as yet.

Any ideas please.....Just payed out for a dedi, then discovered this...very worried about this now if it cant be fixed :(

Thank you

[edited by: incrediBILL at 4:57 pm (utc) on Feb 17, 2012]
[edit reason] URL removed [/edit]

[DeeCee]

Adsense javascript (the actual ads) is of course not loading form your site. The users browser calls on the ads code directly from Google.

However, the requests to Google for relevant ads also result in Google's AdBot trying to load that particular page from your site, checking for keywords to determine what ads to show. If your site does not load for AdsBot (timeouts?), it will likely result in Google not wanting to show ads to the user, when their bot cannot figure out what is on your page. Instead showing the user a blank or empty spot.

If network tests to your server show heavy packet loss, that is an issue for your hosting provider to fix.
A firewall issue (like blocking ICMPs) would not just impact a few packets, but would block every time.

[edited by: DeeCee at 1:31 am (utc) on Feb 17, 2012]

[incrediBILL]

Many sites block proxies, AdSense may be one of them, so using proxies may be misleading your assessment of the situation.

[netmeg]

Whenver I've used proxies, I haven't seen the AdSense.

[Jade99]

incrediBILL thanks,

Do you mean if Adsense know it is a proxie viewing the site they wont show the ads, I did wonder if I wasn't getting the 'proper picture'....but what about the ads missing in the search results, when other sites show adsense there?

[Jade99]

Thank you DeeCee and Nutmeg..beginning to make some sense :)

[Jade99]

Quick update..host just replied and said there IS a problem with the firewall and they are going to reinstall a different one...hopefully this will fix any issues.

[DeeCee]

I agree with incrediBILL that some sites will block some proxies.

However, that would not explain the "70 %" packet loss issue, which would be a pure networking issue.

Unless maybe when the proxy-host is a known scammer host, I don't think Google care about the end-user coming in through a proxy. That is merely a browser configuration, and some users (from their employer sites for example) are still forced to use outgoing proxies to leave the corporate network.

I seriously doubt that Google would want to forgo potential revenue from such users, plus incur the complaints from site-owners who cannot serve ads to users that happen to be proxied.

I believe that if Google's AdsBot can back-access your site page to find keywords, it will serve the ads to the users browser. No matter how that browser might (separately) be accessing your site.

[DeeCee]

Just tested a proxy connection, by setting my browser to go through a proxy. (Under my own control so I could see what happens).

At first the proxy server itself puked at passing along ads from Google. Per the logs because the proxy modsec security rules accused the long nasty google/doubleclick pulls of looking like file injections. So no ads. The rest of the web-site was fine. The denials was (in this case at least) not because of Google, but the proxy itself refusing to pass along the ad output from doubleclick.

Then I turned off the proxy's security screening, so it allowed all requests to pass through with no special security validation, and the whole web-site now showed up perfectly, using the proxy. Both my content AND Google ads. Google did not seem to care where the requests for ads came from, as long as they could call back to the normal web-site and check which keywords to show ads for.

[Jade99]

Thank you DeeCee for your feedback.

My host reinstalled CPF replacing APF, but the packet loss still exists. I just found this post [webhostingtalk.com...] which I have forwarded to them.

So it would seem it is their end, either network, firewall etc. This has been going on for a couple of days that "I" know of, how much longer before that, I dont know.

On the upside...IF they can fix it...I "could" see a considerable increase in Adsense?

On the downside, if they cant fix it..I dont know what my options would be other than to find a new host? :(

Thanks guys :)

Will keep you updated.

[edited by: incrediBILL at 4:59 pm (utc) on Feb 17, 2012]
[edit reason] URL removed [/edit]

[Jade99]

They have fixed it...by making changes in the ICMP_IN_RATE.

Thanks for the support :)

Fingers crossed I see lots of $$$$s come rolling in...ha ha

Cheers

[DeeCee]

ICMP_IN_RATE can surely do a number on ping percentages.

This is one big problem about using the just-ping site (ping in general) as a test for server accessibility.
Even though just-ping calls it "packet loss", that is for most non-techies a severe misnomer, since whether a certain network path from one of just-ping's 50 or so ping sites having 100% lost does not at all mean that connectivity is not there. In simply means that somewhere along the path/route from that particular ping-site to your server there is a router that either denies or rate limits passing along certain ICMP requests.

When I test against one of my own servers, all the just-ping sites report 100% packet loss across the board, as I have set my firewall to block certain security issues by allowing only pings from while-listed IPs. (Just-ping is not on the list, so none of my equipment will respond to ECHO requests from just-ping.)

Yet, I can guarantee that all the connections I have are working quite perfectly for normal traffic, which is the only thing that really matters, except when doing a ping test. ping (ICMP ECHO) is really merely a connectivity test tool, meant as a first test of whether one has a functional route between two points. Which since ICMP can be severely abused, as you have found with ICMP_IN_RATE limiting, is also often either blocked or rate limited for security reasons. Ping can appear dead as a door-nail, and your real-life connections can still be just fine. Such as in my case.

To test for actual network problems with packet loss on real data connections (http, ftp, ...), one would have to use entirely different methods to check for retransmissions and the like.

I wish just-ping would explain this better to its users, since many site-owners using that service might believe that loosing a few ECHO requests during a ping test means that their network connections are really no good.

Another thing many site-owners might not realize is that ICMP is UDP (no established connection, no guaranteed delivery), while a real data connection uses TCP (a connection with guaranteed delivery and packet re-transmissions). Under TCP (http, ftp, and other normal connections), you would never actually see lost data, or the connection would be broken. It would show up as longer connection times, longer file transmission times, potential connection loss in real bad cases, and the like because automatic retransmissions of lost packets saves the day.

So unless the packet loss under a TCP connection is so very bad that it makes Google or others time out on their required connections to your server, that would never cause Adsense ads to not show up.

Which means that you are back to the original issue.

Why is your site being accessed through so many proxies (or rather, why do you think your readers are using proxies)?

Nowadays proxy access is not really that normal, except by site-spammers and some other people that for various reasons are trying to hide their identity behind a proxy. Are you sure that the missing adsense are for users coming through a proxy? Sounds strange to have so many proxy users that it is that noticeable to you.